Michael Rice on the stage for United Kingdom (Photo: Andres Putting / EBU)

REHEARSALS

Big-5 & Israel: First rehearsals

The pre-qualified countries for Eurovision 2019 – Israel, France, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany – have had their first rehearsal on the Eurovision stage. Watch a snippet of the rehearsals here

1st rehearsals (30 minutes)

Before the 1st rehearsal each country gets instructions on safety, the dressing room area is presented, and there will be an In-Ear Monitoring Rehearsal backstage.

After the 1st rehearsal each delegation go to the Viewing Room, to see the recording of the rehearsal. Here any changes on visuals, camera work, choreography, etc. will be discussed. After this, there will be a Makeup Consultation, and the Press Meet & Greet takes place.

Big-5 & Israel

Is Salvador Sobral back to Eurovision but this time for Israel? No but the violins in the beginning surely resemble the beginning of "Amar Pelos Dois". Kobi is all in black and the stage is decorated by some figures where images of his official music video are displayed. The performance displays class and elegancy. Right after the first chorus, the Israeli singer is joined by five back vocalists behind him until the song's bridge when he walks towards the bridge of the stage. Attention to the big note at the end that is joined by some fireworks.

Bilal is wearing a long blonde and a white outfit with his belly showing. At the beginning of the perfomance there are several projections in his face and once he goes to the center of the stage there's a plus-size ballet dancer who executes some choreography. Behind him there's a LED full of empowering words. During the second part of the song, he is joined by an Asian girl who seems to be deaf. There's choreography, there's looks and there is emotion. The press center center highly applauded it.

Miki starts his stage performance on a 2 levels of open house structruce, divided to 6 "rooms" with changing colors backgound. He is joined by 4 dancers placed in different rooms. He wear all black clothing. He climbs down the stairs and continue to dance throught the song similar to his OT performance, with the dancers. A large lighted human-operated figure. Colorful splashes of paint is being animated on all screens (back & floor), with the famous La Venda "eye" icon showing up for a few seconds on the back. Later we can see on the screen behind him shows a colorful fingerprint, which opens for a short & suprising live camera shot from the crowd. He moves with his dancers to the catwalk where ends his performance.

Mahmood kicks things off by himself but shortly is joined by three male dancers that come from the right side of the stage. During the performance, there's a lot of action going behind him which could be too much to take in and sense if one doesn't know the song's story. Nonetheless, once the meaning and story of the song comes through, the LED makes total sense as it is filled with money and family references. In the chorus we can also see the English translation of it in the LED and we can also check out some choreography by Mahmood: the claps are going to be a huge moment. As for clothing, Mahmood is wearing a printed shirt with black pants and vintage shoes.

Michael Rice starts his performance by walking to the microphone. Once he stands you can notice he is wearing a black jacket, black pants and his surrounding is filled with smoke. At this point there's only lights going ON and OFF behind him. The LED solely displays small stars behind him until the second chorus - when fireworks start to display. When the song goes into high notes, there are shots of smoke behind Rice and that's when the 5 backing singers join him on stage.

The girls from S!ster start their performance standing on opposite from eachother. While Carlotta (blonde) starts on the left side of the stage, Laurell is standing on the last step of the right side. While Carlotta is wearing a full black outfit (similar to what she did in Germany's national selection), Laurell is usinga black and golden romper. Once the first chorus finishes, they both start walking towards eachother and meet at the stage center. They stay together until the song finishes and are joined by fireworks. As for the LEDs, one can see their faces during the beginning of the song, during their walk towards the center, the screens show words such as "sorry" or "respect" and through the last chorus, the LEDs are filled with images of pair of girls that could be friends or lovers.